Biba Backchat: Best of 2023 conference freebies

Insurance Times editorial staff have rounded up some of the standout freebies from various stands at Biba’s conference this year.

The conference was held at the Manchester Central Convection Complex from the 10 to 11 May 2023.

And those who had a stand were keen to provide free goodies for attendees, ranging from oven mitts to a rubber duck.

You can see the various items that were handed out to Insurance Times staff below:

Brew-tiful coffee

For Biba-goers and especially first-timers, coffee or tea is a must. And fortunately, the conference did not dissapoint on the beverage front. Various stands were serving branded coffee, but Arag’s stand had a special branded chocolate dusting on top for coffees. 

Arch and Applied Systems took this one step further, handing out branded travel coffee cups as well as hot beverages. Being a coffee lover, our head of research Savan Shah picked one up. 

Arch also had a colour co-ordinated travel mug, notebook, and a stress toy in the shape of a van.

Meanwhile, Applied served branded biscuits and coasters to accompany the hot beverages.

Biba goers on the first day were also treated to some special cocktails from Applied. 

And some stands had branded water bottles, such as Flood Re, Arag and FloodFlash, keeping the delegates hydrated during Biba. 

On the flipside, RSA had fresh fruit smoothies for a much needed boost of energy. This one below is the strawberry and banana one, which technology editor Clare Ruel picked up on the first day before a host of meetings. 

Chocolate lovers

There was even something for chocolate lovers. 

For example, FloodFlash’s Internet of Things (IoT) flood sensor was available, but this time it was made of chocolate. Pretty sure this one doesn’t measure flood water, but you could try. 

Also jumping on the chocolate bandwagon was Ansvar with a chocolate covered cakepop topped with hundreds and thousands. 

And various stands had sweets, including Arag’s selection of jelly beans and skittles in branded pots. 

Hiscox gave out branded red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting, these definitely helped our deputy news editor James Cowen with all the subbing he did. 

Rub-a-dub

Speaking of flooding, Flood Re had a blue branded rubber duck for that post-Biba bath. 

Heat or legal protection?

For anyone looking to bake some cookies like Applied’s above as well as protecting your hands from the heat of the oven, Temple Legal Protection offered a different kind of protection with some branded oven mitts. Our new reporter Chantal Kapani bagged one.  

Meanwhile, should anyone get too overheated from all the Biba networking, many stands had fans. Our acting editor Yiannis Koutoulas picked up a fan from Sedgwick, each one had a special message – his said ”inclusion,” fan-tastic. 

Forget-me-not

For those who are more green-fingered, Yutree had a desk sized Forget-me-not, making sure you don’t forget them or Biba. Reporter Isobel Rafferty bagged one of these confirming her love for ESG stories. 

And gap car insurance firm AMS had some wildflower seeds, on the front it urged the market to “grow with [them]”. 

Tackling technology

For rugby fans, Novidea promoted that it was tackling insurance software issues with an inflatable mini rugby ball. 

Soft hard hat 

Meanwhile, specialist broker Miller put a spin on the hard hat, it gave out a mini stress toy in the shape of a hard hat, signifying its work in construction. 

Brilliant bags 

And to carry all this swag home, many stands had branded bags including Applied Systems, Coalition, Link, insurance Cultural Awareness Network (iCAN) and Temple Legal Protection.